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An appropriate kaizen for each company

Anonim

If there is something that is lasting, it is change *. But never before has change been so deep, wide and fast, to the point of affirming that the change itself changed. With this, most of the traditional milestones that were used to evaluate the various circumstances have been lost.

Changes in scientific, technological, cultural, social and psychological, political, economic, demographic and ecological matters, which implies that nothing is left without being deeply affected, are altering the lives of nations, companies, their employees and customers. To such an extent that the same rules of the game have changed, what made success possible yesterday can only lead to defeat today.

In this way, organizations must respond to new demands, needs and challenges. The aforementioned interrelated changes generate obligations for companies to provide their customers, consumers and users, with a greater variety of products and services, at a greater speed, with high levels of quality, greater security, comfort and convenience, ease of use. and contact with the company, and all this at a convenient price.

Now, if making it feasible is a challenge for every company, it is much more to achieve it profitably, and even more to do it consistently.

Delivering the highest value to the customer, achieving benefits implies making the company highly competitive. Getting there is impossible if you continue with the traditional management systems, built on the basis of Taylorian and Fordist principles.

The fall in trade barriers, advances in communication, the reduction in the cost of transport and the globalization of markets, with the incorporation of new countries into the arena of competition, puts even more pressure on companies.

The formation of economic-commercial blocs, and strong competition forces both companies and countries to closely follow their own evolution and that of their commercial rivals.

There is a World Cup that is played every day, that is the World Cup that really matters and all its inhabitants participate in it. The prize for the position is more jobs, better salaries, higher GDP per capita and a better quality of life.

As mentioned before, all the inhabitants play it, and its key aspects have to do with quality, productivity, creativity and innovation.

To be able to compete, a company requires at least accepting the new rules of the game, leaving the traditional management system based on order to move to a highly competitive system based on participation.

Changes in the environment, added to convergent advances in technologies, organizational behavior, industrial engineering and management science, have given rise to socio-technical systems, which taking into consideration both technological and social issues and their intimates. relationships, allow to give rise to what in Japan is called Kaizen and in the West it has taken various names, such as Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and High Performance Labor Systems.

Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing constitute both a philosophy and a system designed to continuously improve performance in terms of quality, productivity, response times and satisfaction levels, in each product, service, area, activity and process of the company, and of the company as a whole. Always emphasizing the imperative need for continuous improvement of the individuals that make up the organization, its equipment, facilities and supplies.

For this they make use of a series of tools, methods and systems (which are also subject to constant improvement and improvement) aimed at the detection, prevention and systematic elimination of waste, the standardization of processes and the delivery of the highest added value. to customers and consumers.

The fundamental concepts on which kaizen is based are the use and understanding of applied statistics, creativity and innovation, the application and understanding of organizational behavior, the simplification of processes, the process-oriented approach, systemic thinking, preventive thinking, consumer orientation, participatory systems, information systems and knowledge management.

Implementing kaizen requires a reengineering of thinking that leads to a change in the way of managing planning, direction, layout, production, personnel, inventories, maintenance, quality, costs and organization, among others.

In this way, Total Quality Management, the Just-in-Time Production system, Total Productive Maintenance, Quality Control Circles, suggestion systems and participatory planning are implemented in organizations, with the aim of matching and trying outperform the best competitors.

To these traditional systems that give life to kaizen, there are prevention systems, the simplification process, and cost and time reduction systems.

The Time Reduction System (SRT) seeks to reduce preparation times, times for tool changes, response times or deadlines, customer service times, process cycles and deadlines for design and development of products and processes.

The Simplification Process is intended both for processes, be they productive or bureaucratic, as well as for products, services, controls and information.

The Cost Reduction System focused on reducing the total cost per monetary unit of sale.

Making use of, among others, the Cost Reduction Matrix, the Analysis of Activities and Strategic Costs, Analysis of Methods, Time and Tasks, and the search for the Twelve Zeros.

The Cost Reduction Matrix allows joint work between members of processes or sectors, and specialists in order to verify for each activity or component, the feasibility or technical-economic possibility of applying various technologies, materials, or procedures.

Activities or Strategic Costs are considered to be those that, when effectively increased, generate a more than proportional reduction in the total cost - sales ratio.

In this way, we have among the strategic activities: statistical activities concerning the company, productive maintenance, prevention systems, internal auditing, personnel selection, training and education, among others.

Therefore, properly analyze and plan the activities and strategic costs allow significant increases in the profitability of the company.

The Twelve Zeros aim to reach a minimum level in aspects such as: 1) defects and failures in production, 2) breakdowns, 3) waiting times, 4) bureaucracy (zero papers) and controls, 5) accidents, 6) pollution and ecological damage, 7) inventories, 8) customer and employee dissatisfaction, 9) customer and employee turnover, 10) bad debts, 11) work-related illnesses and absenteeism, and 12) fraud. Each of these items make up significant losses not explicitly stated in the results table. Recognizing the importance of each of these factors, and establishing a series of coefficients and ratios for their permanent follow-up and monitoring via the Dashboard is essential when it comes to increasing profits.

The Prevention Systems have the fundamental objective of identifying possible defects, failures, accidents, illnesses, waste and other losses in order to adopt precautionary measures to avoid their occurrence.

The conjunction of these four systems is what is called the Kaizen Rhombus. The dynamic interrelation of these systems allows the company to achieve maximum effectiveness and efficiency.

Its philosophy itself is given by the use of various tools within a thinking methodology.

Precisely in this lies one of its fundamental forces, since it tends to eradicate the previous forms of thought. Many times it is intended to apply Kaizen or Just in Time, but continues to think within the old parameters.

Here it is about handling new concepts. Only by changing concepts can we change our way of thinking. In too many cases the structures of the 19th century are expected to meet and solve the challenges of the 21st century. Similarly, many work in the information age, but the positions they occupy have not been rethought since the Industrial Revolution.

There is something that is fundamental and it is learning to see the company, its systems, processes and activities in a different way, constantly rediscovering and reinventing them.

This that seems mere lip service is not. The vast majority of you go to your workplaces and repeat the same processes and activities day after day. The secret of kaizen according to Ohno is to be continuously prepared, with an open mind, to review and rethink what we do, how we do it, when we do it, who and where it is done, how much it is done and why. As the famous saying goes: "If you continue doing what you have always done you will continue to get what you have always gotten."

There is a strategic need to systematically review our paradigms, as well as those of our competitors and those of our current and potential clients.

To go from a traditional organization to a highly competitive one, a reengineering is required that allows the leap from which it will be in a position to systematically apply continuous improvement.

Both the products and the processes must be simplified, achieving greater fluidity in the processes, for which the implementation of restrictions (such as those of the minimum inventory) is essential, aimed at forcing the processes to be managed without failures, in order to achieve the better use of resources.

The process of eliminating waste requires interaction between people, activities, technology, and opportunity. These four elements must be carefully coordinated so that the right people are doing the right things (activities) in the right way (technology) at the right time (opportunity). All elements are focused on one goal: to eliminate waste.

As a result of the systematic application of kaizen, significant reductions are achieved in terms of costs, levels of failures and defects, process times, response times, occupied surfaces, and response times, while achieving increases in productivity levels., inventory turnover, customer satisfaction, greater variety of products and return on investment.

Now, if the results are so satisfactory, why is there reluctance to apply it?

In the first place, because it is usually identified with a culture different from that of the company and its environment.

It should be noted in this regard that some of the creators of the new management system are Westerners and are called Deming and Juran.

These problems are saved through a correct socio-cultural diagnosis of the organization and its environment, in order to verify which tools and systems are more useful, and can be applied with greater ease and economic advantages. The aim is to adapt the various methods and systems to the particularities of each organization.

Secondly, the fear of change is identified, something that is logical and human, but awareness of the need and training, allow us to overcome them.

The third factor is that many see the change but fail to understand it. Everyone talks about cell phones, the Internet and robots, but few understand the effects they have on the economy and particularly on their companies.

Finally and in fourth place we have those who remain clinging to paradigms that are no longer valid. If paradigms are mental schemes that allow us to understand what happens in our environment, a change in the technological, scientific, cultural, social, political and economic reality, makes these paradigms that allowed us to understand and make valid decisions under the above circumstances, today they are no longer.

The successful implementation of Kaizen is the result of:

Get the full support of top managers and leaders.

Take duly into account the psychosocial and cultural factors of the environment, the company and its sectors.

Apply the various systems, methods and tools as a process with strategic objectives.

Make all the components of the organization aware of the need for change, and its benefits.

Apply the various methods and systems to each company according to an order of priorities, needs, capabilities, possibilities and restrictions.

Make a real cultural change.

Discover and modify the paradigms that are no longer valid.

Implement a participatory and socio-technical system.

Possess a clear understanding of the Kaizen philosophy.

Achieve optimal planning and training.

Once the staff is made aware of the imperative need for change, the process is applied: DPCIEA

  • Diagnosis, Planning, Training, Implementation, Evaluation, and Adjustments - Standardization.

The first thing to implement must be a system of measurements, controls and analysis of statistical data, concerning them to the various processes, activities, sectors, products and services, both corresponding to physical units, as well as temporary, monetary, and financial units, among others. Its implementation will begin with the most important or urgent items given the particular conditions or needs of each company, continuing with the others in a systematic way.

Among the tools and systems to be applied there are more than sixty methods, tools and work systems.

As we have already expressed, the application of each method will depend on the particularities of each company, the potential benefits that allow generating its application, the restrictions to which each organization is subject, the culture and the socio-technical framework..

These techniques are applicable to any type of company, no matter their size or type of activity.

The use, implementation and combination of these techniques and systems has as a fundamental pattern the Kaizen philosophy and strategy, participatory organization, waste elimination, customer service, and the achievement of maximum competitiveness.

What Reengineering Partners offers you:

  • Implement Kaizen based on the needs, requirements and potential of each company. A diagnosis process that allows us to recognize the most useful methods, tools and systems for the company. We can not only train and train tailored to each requirement, but We also offer the necessary technological solution An awareness process about change and its management We teach to think in terms of Kaizen and lean production We apply new techniques, methodologies, tools and systems, many of which are the product of our development and research, which have been put to the test in numerous and varied companies.

* Content of the exhibition made by the author at the Conference on Competitiveness organized by the UGT and the Government of Catalonia on April 19, 2007, in the city of Barcelona.

Consult at: F5DF6E817BF6022E6DBE6C788F8A006

An appropriate kaizen for each company